Chan Lowe: Gov. Scott vetoes DREAMer driver's licenses

"No lo soporto (I can’t stand him).” That’s what a majority of Florida Latinos would say about Gov. Rick Scott if asked. His policies to date have reflected his clear bias toward corporations over people, and a lack of respect for the working poor and the unemployed (Remember the urine test for welfare recipients?).

But, thanks to a looming reelection battle, Gov. Scott has been displaying signs of humanity. He reversed himself to endorse Medicaid expansion, though he failed to deliver — he was notably missing in action when the Legislature needed moral suasion and political cover.

His support of election reform was risk-free. Even our tone-deaf Legislature realized that a law so regressive, inefficient and biased — and that made our state, once again, a national punch line — needed some “tweaking.”

But these so-called humanizing moves have come at a cost. The natives — Scott’s troglodytic base that votes in Republican primaries — are getting restless. Their boy’s going soft, and maybe they’ll just scrape around under the floorboards and find him a challenger who either knows how to toe the line or scares him straight.

Hence, the veto of the DREAMer driver’s licenses. The base feels America’s giving those illegals enough of a free ride as it is, just because they managed to duck the border patrol, or navigate the shark-infested straits, or whatever. While the veto accomplishes little in real terms, it provides an important reminder that Scott’s willing to slap those self-entitled freeloaders around a little.

Spending over $70 million of your own money on a campaign to buy the governor’s chair when you’re an unknown is one thing. Getting people to vote for you after they already know you and dislike you is another. Money just doesn’t provide the same clout.

Therefore, it’s easy to see why our governor bucked the almost unanimous will of his own Legislature on this one. He shored up his right flank while losing little — because the majority of Latinos will never vote for him, anyway.